There has been plenty of fallout from G4S’s well-documented failures at last
year’s Olympic Games, but, as far as Alex Magni, of HSBC, is concerned, it
is a bit of a red herring. According to the bank’s analyst, the real problem
for the market is the pressure on profit margins of proving the case for
“manned guarding”, particularly in Europe.

G4S has contracts to keep the riff-raff out of the Wimbledon tennis
championships, rugby internationals at Twickenham and plenty of other
similar events. The trouble is, Mr Magni says, “pricing for manned guarding
has almost completely disinflated, sometimes below prevailing